Can we future-proof cars with software?

0:00 Introduction to Auto Tech 2026

Today in The Garage, we’re recording live at Auto Tech 2026 in Novi, Michigan. One of the themes you see consistently around the show and conversations in the exhibits and in the awards is technology and bringing technology into vehicles. And obviously every different company is looking to bring in new innovations and new capabilities into vehicles.

You’re also seeing a wide range of different philosophies and approaches for how that technology is being brought in.

There are trade offs that come from companies that are more consumer electronics background or companies that are more traditional automakers that are looking to bring technology into their portfolios more fundamentally.

There’s no single answer.

There’s no single clear approach to how this technology will be brought in. And we’re seeing a lot of experimentation. And to explore this topic, we thought it was great to bring on an expert who talks to automakers all day long and hears their ideas and hears some of the trade offs they’re making. And my guest today is Chip Goetzinger. Chip is Solutions Director for Automobility Advisors, which is a consultancy that helps give analysis and strategic advice to OEMs and suppliers in the automotive space. We talk a lot about how OEMs can bring technology into their vehicles successfully and cover a range of interesting topics. I think you’ll really enjoy today’s conversation.

Let’s go.

1:30 Introducing Chip Goetzinger

I’m John Heinlein, Chief Marketing Officer. Today in The Garage, we’re recording live at Auto Tech Detroit 2026, and I’m so pleased to welcome Chip to the podcast. Chip, welcome to The Garage.

Thanks very much, John. I’m happy to be here.

Always like to start by getting to know our guests. Tell us about you and your background.

Well, I came out of technology and then into automotive and I’m now consulting and helping companies that are trying to find their way in the ecosystem of providers that bring connected services to vehicles and other mobility.

And what was your background? What did you do before this?

Before this in Silicon Valley, started with Oracle. I started to run my own company for a while. And then when I shifted into automotive, I found that marriage between automotive and technology, which has been a really great place to be.

And as a tradition on The Garage, we always like to ask a fun fact about our guests. So tell us a fun fact about you.

2:31 Chip’s Passion for Car Racing

Oh, fun fact about me is that I really am into cars and I’m an amateur automobile racer. So I compete with NASA, which is the National Autosports Association in the Mid South region. I’m an instructor there and I do time trials in my 2004 Corvette.

2004 Corvette? Yes. That’s a cool vehicle. And we were just chatting about this before the show.

You don’t have roll bars in the car.

No, because I’m doing time trials, it’s not wheel to wheel, it’s not first to the checkered line, it is best lap time of the day. So we tend to try to be pretty respectful about passing and car positioning, reduce that chance of car to car impact. Well, have never done car racing, although it’s terribly interesting.

I feel like I wanna go out on the track sometime. I’ve done a lot of bicycle racing, although I’m not very good, but I can’t touch your car racing. So good for you.

I’m happy to give you a ride when you come out of the track someday.

And where are you based out of?

Nashville, Tennessee, but I race all over the Southeast.

You know, Nashville is an amazing city. Everybody tells me how amazing it is. I haven’t made it there. So that will have to be a reason to come visit you in Nashville.

That’s a fantastic place. I’ve been there almost twenty years and it’s barely recognizable from twenty years ago.

That’s what I’m told.

3:36 Overview of Automobility Advisors

So tell us about your company and the firm you’re with AutoMobility Advisors. George Ayres was a guest on the podcast a couple of years ago. George is a good friend. So tell us about there and your role at that firm.

Yeah, I’ve known George a very long time. I started working with AMA three and a half years ago. I’m the solutions director there and I help companies figure out where they belong in the ecosystem and what their product portfolio should look like, what their strategy is, how to provide value and to capture that value, which is challenging for technology companies learning automotive.

Kind of consultants and strategic advisors.

Yes, absolutely. That’s great.

4:14 Evolving Supply Chain Dynamics

We’re excited to talk with you and I think there’s so many interesting trends that you can speak to very well. One is the evolving supply chain. We talked here at the show, you see tier ones, you see OEMs, but what you’re seeing is I think a relationship between OEMs and tier ones is changing where tier ones used to deliver a whole subsystem, whether it’s an instrument panel or something, but in a connected car world, think the supply chain engagement’s different. What are you seeing and how is it evolving?

Yeah, that tier one model has been traditional for decades in automotive as you know and there have been some companies that have tried but there isn’t really that tier one model in the same way in connectivity as it is in physical parts in the car. And what you’re seeing instead is sort of a best-of-breed strategy where you’re bringing together a full ecosystem, the right partners for the right service delivery and the right components, which is challenging sometimes for the automakers to try to assemble that group of partners, but when done well, it can provide a lot of value.

5:16 User Experience in Connected Cars

In connected car, a lot of the focus in connected car is user experience.

And some of the things that I think many automakers feel are both loyalty creating to the driver and also very driver facing. So I think automakers generally feel or have shown a willingness to want to control that more. And yet the evolution of make versus buy is certainly evolving. Where do you feel like we are in that spectrum these days?

Yeah, that make-versus-buy process has been very cyclic in this space. So initially you had OnStar starting in the mid nineties and they were doing everything themselves. But when other automakers came on, they’re looking for partners to bring in and help them with the technology. And then as you got into the mid teens, a lot of automakers were bringing things in house. We can do all of this. We’re going to be technology companies. And I think we’re swinging the pendulum back now when they’re realizing this isn’t a core competence, it’s very difficult, it requires a lot of people, a lot of expertise and we’re back into the bringing lots of partners in to help deliver the services that their customers need.

6:17 Shifts in Data Service Models

It’s exciting and one of the important things that comes out of the connected car space is data service. Data service to vehicles has been something that I think has changed a lot. It used to be for many years charging for data service. Many automakers would have charged that, were there an annual fee or something? And that seemed like a good idea at the time but as connected car capabilities are evolving, it seems like that model’s changing a little.

Yeah, it was a little bit of a penny wise pound foolish early decision where there was this concept of charging off for subscriptions for the in vehicle services but people have gotten accustomed to the consumer electronics model where you’re paying for the phone but all of the apps, of the capabilities kind of come along with that. And there’s so much value that can be generated through having that connectivity for the automaker in terms of management of their own vehicles, over the air software updates, warranty cost reduction as well as leveraging the data generated that it makes more sense to ensure that the vehicle stay connected and not try to charge the customer subscription fee for that base level of connectivity. Rather generate value in other ways to not only cover the cost but to generate revenue and other streams for the automakers.

7:34 Data Utilization for Improved Services

You mentioned a number of important services that OEMs are providing and we’re talking about a number of those as well. For example, our AI Technician product is using data to diagnose vehicles and help improve service costs and improve the service and warranty experience. What are some of the services you’re seeing OEMs use data for that are helpful and let’s say loyalty creating?

Yeah, so one area is just what you talk about is improving the sort of traditional vehicle services. How can we use data to improve our quality management of vehicles? You know, identify issues earlier, diagnose and address those before they get into customer hands to improve the service experience and process at dealerships to be able to diagnose the vehicles, get the right parts, get it repaired the first time and even to be able to do over-the-air software updates that won’t even require a visit to a dealership. So that’s an area that’s really a good internal value generation capability for the OEM.

8:34 Emerging Trends in Vehicle Commerce

In addition to that you’ve got a lot of integration between OEM data and other ecosystems that can improve the in vehicle experience. One area that’s been getting some discussion that’s kind of popular to dig into right now is we call V-commerce, right? So people are accustomed to using their phones to make payments. Well, for a vehicle, is it sensible to make payments from your vehicle for certain kinds of services, Right.

You’re not going to compete directly with the phone that people are carrying with them all the time, but there are certain scenarios in which it makes sense for the vehicle to be a payment mechanism.

Well, there are obvious examples, parking and charging are two examples. We had Parkopedia on the podcast a few years ago.

Exactly right.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve paid for charging because my vehicle is connected to and aware of the networks I use, But some people do, you know, have to kind of authenticate with a credit card or tap-to-pay kind of card. And then parking is another example. Are there other examples you think of as well?

Tolling’s another one that’s pretty natural to do in the vehicle, right? Folks are getting accustomed to having something attached to their windshield but there’s no reason you can’t just have that built into the vehicle as you go through tolling.

There are some technologies and services out there that do that Yeah, are e-tolling companies that have been here at the show the last couple of years as well.

9:48 Decoupling Hardware and Software in SDVs

Yeah. Now, if we pull back more generally and we think about SDV, the full promise of SDV is the decoupling of hardware and software. I mean, that’s, if you think about, if you really boil down an SDV, it’s that this hardware and software are separates and one set of hardware does multiple jobs. So as we think about that change, how are you seeing that evolve the design process and how are you seeing that evolve the thinking about how to design vehicles?

Well, decoupling has been something that the industry has been working towards for fifteen, twenty-plus years because the challenge in technology in a vehicle is the life cycle of a vehicle is so much longer than the phones and the other consumer electronics that we’re accustomed to. If you don’t have a way to decouple the base hardware from the services, you get very out of date very quickly and the vehicle services are no longer interesting. So this is sort of the culmination of years of effort to pull those apart and to be able to keep your vehicle fresh, to be able to keep it updated, to be able to add services to it after the point of purchase is really a kind of a holy grail in connected services to ensure that your vehicle is still interesting and valuable to the customer after you buy it.

10:59 Challenges of Vehicle Lifecycle Management

We’ve talked about this topic so many times from different angles in the podcast in the past. And I think there’s two interesting angles I’d love to explore on that. The first is headroom. One of the conversations that you have is to be able to make the vehicle fresh, because think about your cell phones.

Generally you update your cell phone every, let’s say one year, two years ish for your leading edge people, maybe some people longer, but the average person’s obviously two years is my understanding.

But vehicles tends to be longer. Probably three years, five years, many people keep their vehicles much, much longer. So if you think about wanting to keep the vehicle current over that longer lifetime, you need to have some headroom built into the vehicle. The challenge is, and I had a guest from Ford, retired from Ford, a few years ago, who was commenting that if you put headroom in the vehicle, that’s extra cost. The accounting department says, Well, how are you justifying this extra cost? And it’s immediately red ink on the balance sheets because it’s a loss day one, unless they can be confident, and that’s the keyword, confident that they can sell downstream, and then it’s deferred revenue. So it’s different, right?

How are you seeing OEMs manage that trade off of headroom?

And that really is a big challenge because of course the BOM cost of a vehicle coming out the door is a huge area of focus for profitability of the company. And you’re exactly right. When you’re building an additional hardware capability, that’s a cost that you can’t necessarily justify with revenues today. One of the ways to do that is to build in the headroom in the cloud as opposed to in the vehicle, right? So instead of building a lot more physical capability into the vehicle with hardware technology that’s going to be dated in three to four years and a vehicle has an active life cycle of ten, twelve years.

Right. Well, after resale of course, yeah.

Right. So, yeah, we have to consider the second owners, right? So when you have services in the cloud that can take advantage of the in vehicle capabilities that can extend that life cycle without generating so much in vehicle BOM costs that’s really challenging to build in from day one.

It’s a really smart point. It’s a thing that Sonatus cares a lot about. We really focus on a balance of what we do in the cloud and what we do in the vehicle. And we think there are some things that should be in the vehicle, whether they’re latency-centric or user experience-centric and many other things that don’t need to be.

So it’s a really smart point you make. Do you think about lifetime? I’ve talked to a number of people who feel that SDVs, the promise of SDVs is to potentially extend the lifetime of vehicles because of this upgradability, because they don’t become as stale. Do you believe that as well?

13:32 Future of Vehicle Lifespans

Well, I’ll condition that a little bit. I’d say that the vehicle life cycles are increasing regardless, right? Because the vehicle itself has a very long useful lifetime.

And what has happened in the past is that it’s the technology in the vehicle that gets dated and stops being used and people are just sticking their phones to their windshields. Right? The goal of the OEM is to ensure that the technology systems can last as long as the rest of the vehicle and be useful at that point. And that is what SDV is working for.

That’s great. So if we look longer term, let’s think out to 2030.

14:05 Anticipating Future Automotive Technologies

You talk to lots of people and as an analyst and advisor, you see a lot of interesting new ideas. What are some things that you think in, let’s say two thousand thirty would be standard fare that perhaps are not being talked about today?

I think it has something to do with the, we talk about an ecosystem of partners providing all these different kinds of services. One of the challenges there is the multiple different identities that you have across all of these services and the multiple different personas. How are you identifying the customer and how does your identity from the OEM match up with your identity with your streaming audio service? So federation of identity through identification through your phone or mobile device, creating a singular seamless customer experience is something that people are talking about, but it’s still evolving today and it’s not where it needs to be yet. I think by 2030, there’s going to be that expectation of a singular experience that follows me around in and out of my vehicle. We’re not there yet, but once we get there, we’re gonna wonder how in the world did we live before that happened?

It’s so interesting, you’re the first guest to talk about that because when you look at websites or other things, there’s more and more proliferation of things, you know, sign in with Apple, sign in with Google, sign in with email and so on like that. And I think that there’s no single answer. I mean, people are Google people or Apple people or a combination. Oftentimes you have combination and clearly Google has a strong Google and Apple both have strong plays in the vehicle. But there’s no single answer in any of those to what you just said.

Well, but once you get into a device ecosystem, right? There’s Apple people and there’s Google people. Right. But within your Google world or within your Apple world, you have a pretty seamless experience and identity through all your different apps, through all your different identifications. And I think vehicles need to join the internet of things in the same way.

I don’t need to have a car persona that’s different than my in home persona, that’s different than my on device persona. I am who I am, I have the same interests, I have the same musical tastes and having that carry with me through all of my different environments is something that the automakers are working to support so that the customers have a seamless experience.

16:12 Insights from the Auto Tech Awards

We were just visiting last night at the Auto Awards.

I gave away the OEM of the Year Award to Hyundai. We’re excited to be able to celebrate them.

What are some of the technologies you saw at the Auto Tech Awards last night that were interesting?

Oh, there was some really good stuff. I was actually a judge for a few of the awards and got to see a number of the technologies come through ahead of the show, which was fascinating.

And it’s interesting to see the application. Of course there’s all the consumer facing technology that everybody’s familiar with, always advances in AI and voice control and all of these sorts of things but it’s really great also to see technology applied to internal processes into other experience affecting things. So we talked about service, but test and validation as these ecosystems get more and more complex, ensuring that they work well is really quite difficult, right? So early on in technology adoption in vehicles, a lot of the challenges in sort of J.D. Power’s reports and the like, the declining quality perception of the higher tech vehicles and applying technology to ensure that everything works well, maybe isn’t the sexiest thing to think about in terms of new features, new customer experiences, but just having it work is sort of a baseline that needs to be there for all the rest of the services to mean anything and seeing technology applied there, I think is really interesting.

17:29 Closing Thoughts and Reflections

It’s very close to our heart. We’re doing a lot of work on exactly those areas. We didn’t rehearse that answer. Thank you for that answer. But that’s very close to our heart. Thank for saying that. Chip, great to visit with you.

Thanks for spending time with us here at Auto Tech.

Great. Thanks for having me on.

Had a great time.

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